Another Look at Educational Technology Research

In a previous course I took a look at Educational Technology Research and the data it presented about schools. I looked at data representing teacher to home and school district to home communication. My reflection on that data can be found in a previous blog post.

This week, I took a look at some more Educational Technology Research. I wanted to look at data representing a different area of education, so I decided to focus on a different part of the Project Tomorrow Speak Up report. This report shares views on technology and education by speaking to teachers, students, librarians, administrators, parents, and community members. They survey members of private and public schools, as well as rural, urban, and suburban areas.

While digging through the report, I found an infographic about digital learning in K through 12 students. This data represented approximately 340,000 students from around the world. It listed "Ten Things Everyone Should Know about K-12 Students' Digital Learning". Below is the infographic I studied.

Project Speak Up Infographic (Source) 

There were pieces of information on this survey that caught my attention. The first one that I was surprised by was #3. This states that 77% of high school students prefer to read a printed book or article, and that 66% of K-2 students prefer reading on a screen. I was shocked to learn that higher schoolers don't prefer to read digitally. I thought by this point high schoolers would have preferred digital reading, because digital books have been around for quite a while. I completely agree with their opinion, but I'm ten years out of college. The data on the younger kids doesn't surprise me as much because texts are becoming more and more digital by the year.

One piece of information that I was happy to see was #8. This data says that students are learning how to be safe online. It states that students learn most of this from their parents and then they learn from teaching themselves. I think it is awesome that parents are getting involved in their children's online safety. I do think that is important that we talk about it in school too because there might be a student or two that don't have parents teaching them at home. 

Finally, I thought #6 was kind of shocking but not surprising. It states that 77% of middle schoolers and 90% of high schoolers use online videos to learn and that 1/3 say they can learn more from a video than from text. Those numbers seem so high which was shocking to me. However, I am a huge user of videos in my classroom because I know the students learn really well from them. This data reassured me that showing videos is a good instructional strategy. 

After going through this activity, I realized it's very important for teachers to take a look at data like this occasionally. It really opens your eyes to what is going on in the world of education and technology.

D98 Acceptable Use Policy

This week I was tasked to search for and take a look at the social media policies for both students at staff in my district. I work for Berwyn North School District 98. Before searching for my districts policies I knew that I had read them somewhere, but I couldn't remember where. I went first to the website and found the student policy.

(Image Source) 

Student Policy

The student policy was easy to locate in the student handbook. It was listed as "Internet Acceptable Use" on page 35. While reading through this section of the student handbook I noticed that it was a good mix of students shouldn't do and what they should do. Below is an example of one part of the handbook that specifically lists actions the students are not allowed to do.  As this is in the student handbook I think it is important that there is a list of behavior that are unacceptable. The top of this list mentions that these are only examples, which I believe is great word choice so the students know that other behaviors might fall under this category as well. 

BN98 Student Unacceptable Use Policy (Image Source) 

There was also a section that listed how the students were expected to behave when using the internet. I found this section great! It reminded kids of internet basics that definitely should be repeated every year. 

BN98 Student Etiquette Policy (Image Source) 

The rest of the policy went over how the students should take care of their equipment, how the district monitors e-mails, and other important things they should know about technology in District 98. Overall, I think that my district has a well put together student policy of internet use. 

Staff Policy

After going through the student policy and finding it complete and well put together, I was excited to dive into the staff policy. I had high hopes that it would be just as complete as the student policy and just as well written. It took a little bit more time to find the staff policy. It is located in our employee handbook which is only available as a google doc to staff only. 

Once I found it, I was surprised to see that it was only five lines long. Below you can see those five lines. 

Image Source - BN98 Employee Handbook

I think that these five lines go over the basics such as use of, responsibility for, and overall purpose of the technology. I think there is a lot that could be added to this policy. I know that it is for adults and not students, but it could be much more complete. I know that there probably are staff members that do not use their technology in the correct manner because it is not stated specifically in the handbook. 

The policy states to refer to the Board Policy 6:235. I found this on page 219 of the Board Policy, which was posted to the public on the district website. This policy goes way more in depth than what the staff handbook says. 

Final Thoughts

It's interesting to me that so much thought was put into the student policy and not as much into the staff policy outside of the Board Policy document. Until this assignment I didn't even know that board policy was on the website. I wonder how many of my coworkers have taken the time to look at it. Like I said before, I understand that students need more specifics than adults, but I would think that a school district would want all their bases covered when it comes to technology. It was really interesting to dive deeper into these policies. 

PLN Tic-Tac-Toe

My PLN Experiences

This week I got to focus back on my Professional Learning Networks (PLN). Before a previous class, I had no idea that I was a member of any sort of PLN. After learning what a PLN can be, I found that I was participating as a lurker. I had a Pinterest where I searched for others people's posts and sometimes reposted. I also had a personal Instagram where I would lurk on other teachers and teacher Instagram accounts.

After learning what a PLN was, I began to take a more active role in my PLNs. I created a professional Twitter account, and slowly began interacting with other accounts. I began interacting a little with teacher Instagram accounts as well. I still don't believe that I have climbed up very high on the Seven Degrees of Consecutiveness. I would say that I am a novice now.

Why I use a PLN? 

There are many different reasons that teachers participate in PLNs. It could be for social, affective, cognitive, or identity reasons. For me, the main reason that I participate is for cognitive reasons. Through the use of PLNs, I am exposed to new teaching ideas and resources that I can use in my classroom. When I go to my PLNs I'm normally looking for something specific to solve a problem or use in my teaching. I also really like using PLNs so that I can be reflective. As an educator I find myself very reflective and by looking at what other teachers are doing I can improve my teaching. It is something that I was taught to do back in my undergraduate education program at Marquette and continues today. 

Tic-Tac-Toe

The activity that I chose to take part in this week was on Pinterest. I have used Pinterest many times in the past, but haven't been relying on it lately for ideas. I decided that an area that I needed more ideas for was anchor charts. My entire class is EL students. They and I both love a good anchor chart. The visual information is so beneficial for EL students because a lot of times they need to see things before they understand. I think I could step up my anchor chart game, so I decided to make and anchor chart board. 

My anchor chart board (Photo Credit) 

Being able to look at how other teachers have visually organized information gives me so many ideas for anchor charts that I want to create for my classroom. I always create some with the students as we learn, but it is nice to have some up all year round. Posting things they are going to need no matter the time of year is a great idea, and I want them to be visually interesting so the students use them and can remember what is on them.

After creating this board, I decided to share it on my professional Twitter account. I don't have many followers on my account, but I thought it would be a good idea. It doesn't hurt to share my ideas and see if anyone can benefit from them, or give me ideas to add. 

Twitter Post (Personal Photo)

I am excited to continue to explore PLNs and expand my use of them. I would love to move up on the Seven Degrees of Consecutiveness because there are so many benefits to being active in a PLN.

About Elizabeth - EDU 790 Introduction

Personal Photo

About Me: 

Hello everyone!

My name is Elizabeth Van. Above you can see my current Facebook profile picture. This is an engagement picture that my fiancé and I took on a freezing day at the beginning of November. We chose the beginning of November for our photos thinking that we would still have some fall weather left, but of course Chicago weather struck again and it was really cold! We are getting married on October 12th this year! The planning stages are really starting to get into full swing, and I know the next nine months are going to fly by!

On a personal note, I love to read! I read and finished four fiction books during my two week winter break. I've run out of room on my bookshelf and have just began stacking books on any open surface in my apartment.

I am currently a fourth grade EL teacher at Jefferson Elementary School in Berwyn, IL. This is my sixth year teaching. All but one of those years, where I taught second grade, have been in fourth grade classrooms. I've taught in Milwaukee, River Forest, and now Berwyn. Last year second grade was a lot of fun, but I'm loving being back in fourth grade. My heart really does belong in the intermediate grades. This is the final class I need before completing my Master of Arts in Education (YAY!). I'm so excited to be almost done!

Social Media: 

Feel free to take a look at the rest of my blog. It includes reflections and projects I have worked on throughout other Dominican Courses. Below are a few of my other professional profiles. 

Twitter: @TeacherMsVan

Website: Professional Profile

I'm excited to learn and grow as an educator through this course!